OUTTAKES FROM THE REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

The telephone rang Tuesday morning for Priscilla
Rakestraw, back at work in Wilmington at the Delaware
Breast Cancer Coalition, as she adjusted to life as the
soon-to-be former Republican national committeewoman.

"One moment for the vice president," said the voice
on the telephone.

"The vice president of what?" said Rakestraw in a
typical state of distraction. She is the original multi-tasker,
always with great gobs of projects going on, so how was
she to know which vice president of what was calling
from where.

"The . . . vice . . . president . . . of . . . the .
. . United . . . States," said the voice, enunciating
clearly and slowly, as if talking to an alien from Mars.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., the vice president of the
United States of America, was indeed calling, Democrat
to Republican, as he also contemplated life with a
national committeewoman from the other party not named
Rakestraw.

They go back pretty far in state politics, Biden and
Rakestraw, with Biden elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972
and Rakestraw to the Republican National Committee in
1976. Say "Joe" or "Priscilla" to people in politics,
and it is enough.

Rakestraw will be out of office at the end of of the
Republican national nominating convention this summer in
Tampa. She was bushwhacked by elements of her own party
and gave way Friday evening at the Republican state
convention in Rehoboth Beach to Ellen Barrosse, a
businesswoman known in politics up until now as the
founder of the pro-life A Rose and A Prayer.

"Priscilla, Joe Biden here," Biden said.

"Mr. Vice President, this is certainly shock and
awe," Rakestraw said that she said, recounting the
conversation afterwards.

They talked for 23 minutes, but who was counting?
They swapped political yarns, and Biden acknowledged
Rakestraw's dedication to her party, state and country.

"It was pretty emotional," she said.

Only once before had Rakestraw taken a telephone call
from a vice president. The other one came from the first
George Bush, asking her to run his 1988 presidential
campaign in Delaware, but she told him she was committed
to Pete du Pont, the ex-governor who was the favorite
son. The irony, all these years later, is that du Pont
endorsed Barrosse for national committeewoman.

Biden kidded that Rakestraw might not want to tell
anyone about their phone call. Ha!

"Mr. Vice President, you can be assured I'll tell the
world," Rakestraw said, and she is.

# # #

Ron Sams had a good convention. It was only fair,
after the bad one he had the last time.

Sams used to be the Sussex County Republican chair, a
steady presence in a county prone to political
pyrotechnics, like the noisy blowup it is having now
over the police powers, or not, of the county sheriff.

Around the time of the last state convention, the Tea
Partiers in the Sussex Republican ranks hounded Sams out
of office. In something of a payback to the Tea Partiers
at this one, Sams was honored as the Republican of the
Year.

This was before Sussex erupted at the state
convention in indignation over the slate of delegates
going to the national convention, primarily because Tom
Ross was on it, and Sussex has not gotten over Ross
telling them, when he was the Republican state chair,
that the reason he said Christine O'Donnell could not
get elected dogcatcher was "because it was true."

Sussex demanded a roll call, but it was outvoted, and
the slate of delegates was approved.

Afterwards, a photo of Ron Sams was sent around by
smart phone with the mischievous caption, "Miss me yet?"

# # #

The Republicans left their convention with John
Sigler, a past president of the National Rifle
Association, as their state chair, and Barrosse, the
founder of A Rose and A Prayer, as their national
committeewoman-elect.

What came next was inevitable. People joked the new
name of the party was "Guns N' Roses."